At the start of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the German team had no reason to celebrate. Like in Rio de Janeiro five years ago, the first medals were awarded when the black, red and gold athletes were left empty-handed. The closest to the precious metal came on Saturday, with sports shooter Christian Ritz finishing fifth in his second discipline with an air pistol ten meters away. In the road bike race, Maximilian Schachmann was in the lead for a long time and eventually came in tenth.
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The outstanding performance of the day from a German point of view was provided by Henning Mühleitner in the swimming on Saturday. The 24-year-old from Nekarsulam was the fastest in the 400m freestyle final on Sunday and raised hopes of the first pool swimmer medal after two Summer Games. For standard holder Laura Ludwig, the Games in Japan started with a loss. The day after the opening ceremony, beach volleyball Olympic champion and her partner Margareta Kozuch lost in a 1:2 set to fourth of the Swiss World Cup against Tanja Huberli and Nina Betschart. Carla Borger and Julia Sood also lost 1:2 to European champions Joanna Heydrich and Anouk Verge-Depre, who also came from Switzerland.
The handball team is under Spain after a major fight
National coach Alfred Gislason’s handball team lost 27:28 in the first round to European champions Spain. The next German opponent in Group A is Argentina next Monday. Things got better for the hockey men in a 7–1 win against Canada. Another tough challenge awaits in the second group match on Monday in world champions Belgium. One of the biggest disappointments from the German point of view was the performance of the saber fencers. Athlete’s spokesman Max Hartung, Matias Szabo and Benedict Wagner failed early. Aron Szilági of Hungary became the first male fencer in history to win his third gold medal in the individual discipline.
The gymnasts applauded. The men’s sixth-placed team advanced to the final. In addition, Lucas Dauser and Philippe Herder advanced to the individual all-round finals. Douser can also calculate his chances in the final battle on the bars. Tennis players also started well in the Olympic tournament. Alexander Zverev wins with Jan-Lenard Struff Hubert Herkaz/Lukasz Kubot 6:2, 7:6 against the five-seeded Polish pair. Kevin Kravitz and Tim Putz are also in the round of 16. Women’s doubles Anna-Lena Freedsom and Laura Siegmund were eliminated. After his first win in singles, Struff faced world number one Novak Djokovic.
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